This subspecies is rare and is very scattered. A community inventory conducted for this species produced an estimate of 200,000 trees (Y. Yang pers. comm. 2010), but it is unsure what proportion of these were mature.

This variety occurs in high mountain ranges of the SW Plateau of China between 2,100 and 3,000 m asl, on grey-brown mountain podzols, brown earth or lithosols. The climate is cold and moist, with annual precipitation between 1,000 and 2,000 mm. It is a rare species, usually mixed with Picea spp., Abies fargesii var. sutchuenensis, Tsuga chinensis, Larix potaninii at high elevations, and Betula spp. at lower elevations; also as a pure forest in Tsin-ling Shan (Wang 1961).